Ajcsj to Send Religious Literature to Soviet Jews

In response to a plea from Soviet Jews just received here, the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry, announced that it will arrange to send religious literature to Jews in the Soviet Union. According to Richard Maass, chairman of the AJCSJ, the appeal came from relatives of a number of Jews interred in Soviet labor camps and prisons. They asked the AJCSJ to send the prisoners religious literature, such as Bibles and prayer books, of which they have been deprived by Soviet authorities.

Maass said his organization is working in conjunction with affiliated religious organizations to transmit the religious articles to the Jewish prisoners in the Soviet Union. Among the affiliated groups are the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Synagogue Council of America, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and the United Synagogue of America. The letter received by the AJCSJ stated that efforts to transmit religious literature to the prisoners was thwarted by Soviet authorities, including a prayer book published in the USSR and permitted by Soviet censorship.